Kurt Vonnegut Summary

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. (1922—) Having come to prominence only with his sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a rare example of an author who has been equally important to ... Read more

Biography EssayAs of 1987 Kurt Vonnegut's work includes twelve novels, a play and a television play, two collections of short stories, two collections of essays, and a miscellany of uncollected shorte... Read more

Described as "a word cartoonist, a wise guy, a true subversive," by Valerie Sayers in the New York Times, Kurt Vonnegut is lauded as one of America's most respected novelists, "recognized as a thought... Read more

As of 1977, Vonnegut's work includes eight novels, a play and a television play, two collections of short stories, a collection of essays, and a number of uncollected shorter pieces of fiction and non... Read more

[This entry was updated by Peter J. Reed (University of Minnesota) from his entry in DLB 152: American Novelists Since World War II, Fourth Series.]Though Kurt Vonnegut had been a widely read short-st... Read more

In the following essay, Trachtenberg discusses the emergence of a dark comic mode in American fiction during the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on common themes in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonn... Read more

In the following essay, Barnes provides several definitions of black humor, placing it in social and historical context, with special emphasis on the work of Kurt Vonnegut. The product is labeled ... Read more

In the following review, Clark argues that Fates Worse than Death lacks coherence. Kurt Vonnegut, German-American author of Slaughterhouse-Five, the consummate work on the bombing of Dresden, fears he... Read more

Critical Essay by Rebecca M. Pauly With a certain facile agility, [Vonnegut] has gone genre jumping, assuming the colors, alternately, of short story writer, novelist, playwright, and sometime poet. C... Read more

Critical Essay by James Lundquist There is a mystical, perhaps unnerving appeal in the way Vonnegut artistically maintains the clement aloofness that strangely accounts for much of his contemporaneity... Read more

Critical Essay by David Bosworth Vonnegut expresses a relentessly pessimistic vision of man, a pessimism far surpassing the cynic's belief in the eventual victory of evil or the fundamentalist&... Read more

Critical Essay by Granville Hicks [Vonnegut] is a sardonic humorist and satirist in the vein of Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift. In earlier works, such as Player Piano, Cat's Cradle, and God Bles... Read more

Critical Essay by William Boyd In 1975 Kurt Vonnegut published a collection of reviews, articles and speeches under the annoying title of Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons. Now, six years later, he h... Read more

Critical Essay by Richard Giannone Even from the experience of the modern century, which has already witnessed the killing of over one hundred million people in wars and death camps, political philoso... Read more